Fan page for the Olympic curlers' funky pants mistakenly taken down
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Haavard Vad Petersson of the
Norwegian curling team gets set to deliver the stone during practice at
the Vancouver Olympics. The diamond-patterned pants worn by the team
have earned quite a following on Facebook.
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Robert F. Bukaty / AP
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By Janie McCauley
updated 3:53
p.m. ET Feb. 25, 2010
VANCOUVER, British
Columbia - The Norwegians' pants were pulled down. Briefly.
Not to worry, curling
fans — they were back up after a 2½-hour scare.
A Facebook page dedicated
to the funky, diamond-print pants worn by the Olympic men's curlers was
mistakenly taken down Wednesday, making it temporarily inaccessible to
its 435,000 followers.
Norway has become a sensation at the Vancouver Games
as much for its pants as its strong performance on the ice. The
Norwegians play in the semifinals Thursday against Switzerland.
Facebook initially sent a
notice to Tony D'Orazio, who manages the page, saying it had violated
the site's terms of use. He alerted the page's followers from his home
in Rochester, N.Y.: "It is a sad day for the pants."
Outraged comments piled
up before Facebook restored the page. A spokeswoman said it actually had
not broken any of the social networking site's rules.
"Some technical issues
rendered the page inaccessible for a short time this evening, but the
Page is once again up and running," Facebook said in a statement to The
Associated Press.
Otherwise,
Norway's King Harald V himself might have had to step in. He received a
pair of the pants from the curlers after watching their win over
Britain on Tuesday and giving the team a pep talk.
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D'Orazio, 37, is a curler
himself who works in information technology for a plastics company. He
said he was happy to have the problem fixed and was confused when
Facebook first told him the site violated its terms of use.
"I had gotten support
from everywhere," he said. "The Norwegian Curling Association actually
invited me over to one of their tournaments next year, so that was a
nice invitation. And Chris Svae's girlfriend, who said: 'The guys really
appreciate the support. They're well aware of the group and I think
they even joined in. Keep up the good work.'"
When D'Orazio started the
page, he figured maybe 20 of his friends would sign up. He said he
can't believe the popularity of the page now.
"In about 20 minutes I
had about 200 fans and it grew very quickly from there. It's
overwhelming a little bit," he said. "I'm not only a fan of the pants,
but I'm also a curling fan. I've been called by a couple of people the
undisputed No. 1 fan of Norwegian curling."
AP Sports Writer Joseph White and Associated
Press Writer Lila Ibrahim contributed to this story in Vancouver.